January 1^st , 2017

10:00 am -----------------------------------------As You See The Day Approaching – Hebrews 10:25

Wednesday: 7:30 pm------------------True Grace, Pt.6, The Grace of Compassion – – 1 Peter 3:8-12

“Heaven is before us and Christ is the only door into it; hell is beneath us and Christ is the only deliverance from it; the law is against us and Christ alone is able to deliver us from its curse; the wages of sin is death and Christ alone retired the debt.” –Terry Worthan

New Year’s Resolutions

At the beginning of a new year, many resolve to do or not do many things. Most resolutions are vain and quickly fail. But I submit some good resolutions from God’s Word; resolutions according to His will (written), and are profitable for all. But these resolutions must begin with, “If the Lord will . . . By God’s grace “; for . . . “without Him we can do nothing.”

1. 1. The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer (1 Peter 4:7). The beginning of a new year is a reminder of how fleeting and brief our time here is. The end of all things is at hand; we have here no continuing city. This world is not our home . . . be sober, be not intoxicated with anything in this world so as to take your mind from Christ and eternity. Watch unto prayer! In everything pray. Pray, pray, and pray without ceasing. The world, flesh and the devil are powerful foes that threaten the soul. Be resolved, by God’s grace, to CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD CONTINUALLY. Call to be saved; saved from this present evil world.
2. 2. Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). The Lord’s command to His saints is that we love one another; love as brethren. As this world becomes more and more corrupt, the Truth and those who believe it and profess it will be more and more hated. We are not of this world and are hated by this world. We need each other! We need to love and be loved in a world that hates us. We need to meet together and exhort one another, so much more as we see the day of our Lord approaching. We are marching to Zion!
   1. 3. Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby . . . grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:2. 2 Peter 318). We need the grace of God in everything. We need every good and perfect(ing) gift (grace) and it all comes from above. So we must ask, and we must seek. The graces of our God are many. The grace of repentance, faith, love, joy, mercy, wisdom . . . and so much more. Every grace comes from God, the God of all grace. It comes by asking, seeking, and knocking. Prayer and the Word. Prayer and the Word. Prayer and the Word. Hearing the Word preached and reading and feeding on the Word personally . . . that we may grow thereby; grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord . . . that we may grow up into Him in all things. Resolve to pray, love, hear and read more.

True Religion

True religion is a serious and personal concern. It arises from a right knowledge of God and ourselves; a sense of the great things he has done for fallen man; a persuasion, or at least a well-grounded hope, of our own interest in his favor; and a principle of unbounded love to him who thus first loved us. It consists in an entire surrender of ourselves, and our all, to God; in setting him continually before us, as the object of our desires, the scope and inspector of our actions, and our only refuge and hope in every trouble: finally, in making the goodness of God to us the motive and model of our behavior to our fellow creatures: to love, pity, relieve, instruct, forbear, and forgive them, as occasions offer, because we ourselves both need and experience these things at the hand of our heavenly Father.